The SMEChain Ventures

Dear Santa, for 2025 bring us a united startup market for Europe (with the 🇬🇧 in it) 🧑🎄🎁🎄 While we wish, it's not too late for you to share again, like again, support again: 👉 eu-inc.org "A startup from California can expand and raise money all across the United States. But our companies still face way too many national barriers that make it hard to work Europa-wide, and way too much regulatory burden." – Ursula von der Leyen, Oct 2024

Getting a new fund off the ground is tough. But did you know there are programs designed specifically to help emerging managers secure funding, gain support, and connect with institutional capital? Here’s 18 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐬 offered by pensions, endowments, and major sponsors—each designed to give early-stage fund managers the edge they need: 1. Ashton Global LLC | Global Investment Management Asset Classes: Private equity, litigation investments, special situations 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d5X-Nz6n 2. CalPERS Emerging & Diverse Manager Program Asset Classes: Global equity, private equity, real estate 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d-G7NViV 3. Certior Capital Asset Classes: Private equity, direct lending, private debt 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dBXd_Pvh 4. DUMAC Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Public and private classes 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d74TBSzv 5. GCM Grosvenor Small, Emerging, and Diverse Manager Investing Asset Classes: Private equity, real assets 🔗 https://lnkd.in/de-EVtEY 6. HarbourVest Partners Asset Classes: Private equity, real assets 🔗 https://lnkd.in/deTB8RGs 7. LACERS Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Public markets, private equity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/djJ-Ekg8 8. LAFPP Specialized Manager Program Asset Classes: Buyout, VC, special situations 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dN8xjR2E 9. MassPRIM FUTURE Initiative Asset Classes: Fixed income, real estate, hedge funds 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dj-pHcGh 10. Michigan Small Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Venture capital, private equity, credit 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d8-EiDSU 11. MITIMCo Emerging Managers Asset Classes: Private equity, real estate, venture capital 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dPf_iRi4 12. New Jersey Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Private equity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dNeXve59 13. NY State Common Retirement Fund Asset Classes: Public equity, private equity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dkrD2JsV 14. NorthBound Equity Partners Platform Asset Classes: Private equity, private debt 🔗 https://lnkd.in/de2Q8kPn 15. Recast Capital Enablement Program Asset Classes: Venture capital 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dijN9QBX 16. TRS of Illinois Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Global equity, private credit, real estate 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dNpQ59xw 17. TRS of Texas Emerging Manager Program Asset Classes: Private equity, hedge funds, real estate 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dVYm8ug2 18. Unigestion Emerging Managers Programme Asset Classes: Private equity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d_dS7f-a Hope this list was helpful! I'm sending out a list of 100+ active LPs this week, if you'd like to get it, subscribe to my newsletter over here: https://lnkd.in/eYjevD5Z 🟣 🟣 🟣 Follow EverythingStartups for more! #startups #VC #venturecapital #funding #fundraising #emergingmanager #fundmanager

2024 was a year of elections, the outcomes of which inform what happens next on climate change. My article in The Currency looks at the international ramifications on climate negotiations and delves into the possible outcomes from the formation of a new Government in Ireland. 🇮🇪 ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

🤷♂️ "Its a pipeline problem - there just aren't enough women founders applying." ❌ Wrong. This is a tired excuse that is disproven by the data. The 2024 Techstars Tech Central Sydney Accelerator broke Australian records for an equity-backed accelerator: Highest representation of female founders (10 out of 12 teams or 83%), most diverse (all teams or 100%) and strongest cohort of founders in a single accelerator class (anecdotal at this stage - data to come in 5-10 years 😉 ). Looking at the data there are some big lessons that are applicable for all investors: 🏌♂️ Men prospect, women wait. The result? We had more applications from men-only teams, but stronger applications from teams with at least one woman. Once we controlled for quality, the remaining application numbers were pretty much gender-neutral. 🪜 The critical step is from application to interview. Many investors claim that their process has no bias because they don't see a drop in representation from teams with at least one woman between application and interview - but the fact that applications aren't actively penalised for having a woman founder doesn't go far enough. If the investor progresses teams to interview in the same proportion that applications are received without controlling for quality, they're favouring weaker applications from men-only teams over stronger applications from teams with at least one woman. 🎙️ How you interview matters. Structured rounds, clear interview goals, a founder-first mindset, and deploying a combination of promotional and preventative questions regardless of gender creates a level playing field - in our case, this allowed teams with at least one woman to actually increase representation from interview to screening committee. It is an unavoidable truth that the venture capital system was designed by men, is upheld predominantly by men, and benefits predominantly men.  But it doesn't have to be this way.

As we prepare for 2025, I've been thinking a lot about #storytelling. Stories about #growth. Stories about #opportunity. Stories that #expand. Stones that #win. Given the outcomes of the 2024 election, I know many in the founder community are struggling with how to tell authentic stories when it feels like the ground game has shifted so much. It's in the #silver #lining ... #Money was a key talk track for this election, but the levers really moving will be #fiscalpolicy and #regulation. We will likely see reduced regulation and interest rates, more business-friendly policy, and less government oversight (abortion notwithstanding) - all of this is expected to open up #capital #liquidity. And that's the key to focus on. Money should start to move. So how can we (esp. founders & investors of the female and non-binary variety) prepare for that? What #stories will the market gravitate towards? What words will #resonate with investors? Which value statements will #get #the #check? Here's my playbook: 💡 I want every #founder I know to (re)strategize your story in 2025. ▶️ Lead with #money.  ▶️ Focus on the #opportunity nobody else sees. ▶️ Show up with #confidence and #conviction.  ▶️ Deliver an #audacious #vision.  ▶️ #Rehearse prevention versus promotion.  ▶️ Be #strategic about your #semantics. The check will not be won on empathy. It will be won on #value #creation and #value #capture. Focus on the dollars and cents. 💡 I want every #investor I know (VCs, angels, and institutions) to (re)consider your capital flows in 2025. ▶️ Get comfortable being #uncomfortable in new opportunity spaces.  ▶️ Listen with an ear toward #whats #next -- not what's now.  ▶️ Seek out new #arbitrage #opportunities -- be your own signal. ▶️ Brainstorm how existing models could #break or #change. ▶️ Invest in #formidable #founders -- even if they don't look like you.  ▶️ Write the #check.    Some of the most innovative companies have #yet #to #be #capitalized -- let's #find them and #fund them. We know this game. Let's play it smarter in 2025. Wishing everyone the best of holidays -- filled with lots of #great #brainstorming in prep for 2025! #innovation #venturecapital #investing #diversity #opportunity #breakoutreturns #storytelling #gamechangers #worldchangers Bonus thoughts ;) : 1️⃣ In the last few cycles, VC funding has expanded after an election year -- regardless of the party elected. (chart attached) 2️⃣ Long-term GDP growth has also continued -- regardless of the party elected. Near-term GDP is driven by short-term policy and capital shifts, but the economy has always been a long game. (chart attached) Deep breadth. Craft your money story. Keep going. ....

34 Women in VC Who Made Partner or General Partner in 2024 👏 "According to a 2023 report by PitchBook, women made up 19% of investment partners at US funds, up from 16% in 2020. Similarly, across the Atlantic, a report by European Women in VC revealed that women held 16% of general partner roles in Europe in 2023." Let's meet them: Mona Gindler | Partner at Senovo Cat McDonald | partner at AlbionVC Grace Ge | partner at Amplify Jennifer Li | general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Iulia Tudor | partner at Ascension Prerna Sharma | general partner at Antler VC Nadine Torbey | partner at AlbionVC Nancy Chou | partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners Rachel Wilson | managing partner The BFM Fund Dinika Mahtani | partner at Cherry Ventures Dr. Carolin Althoff | General Partner at Cusp Capital Lily Wang | partner at Expon Capital Alice Zheng | partner at Foreground Capital Claire Zau | partner at GSV Ventures Lavanya Bhamidipati | partner at InHealth Ventures Zoe Perret | partner at Initialized Capital Philine Huizing | partner at Insight Partners Charlotte Ross | partner at Inspired Capital Yuri Lee | partner at IVP Esha Vatsa | partner at Mercuri Vivian Cheng | partner at Next47 Erika Nash | partner at Next Frontier Capital Elena Viboch | managing director at General Catalyst Charlotte Salasky | partner at Notion Capital Rebecka Löthman Rydå | general partner at Norrsken Accelerator Molly Alter | partner at Northzone Tara Stokes | partner at Point72 Ventures Zainab Al Sharif | partner at Plus VC Louise Kingston | partner Baird Camila Vieira Fernandes | partner QED Investors Megan Kelly | partner at Threshold Ventures Ashley Ryder | partner at VamosVentures Lily Bernicker | partner at Wireframe Ventures Vera Elizabeth B. | partner at 4P Capital Congrats to all! Your success marks incredible progress for women in leadership roles! 🌟👏 cc: Business Insider

💕 It took 8 pregnancies to bring my two beautiful babies into this world. 💕 🕯️ My Christmas message this year is the recognition that we need to talk about #miscarriage more for our mental & emotional health & #wellbeing. 🕯️ 🙏 So many of us this year have quietly spoken at events about baby loss & more importantly that 'no-one talks about this'. Well I do. I see you all, I feel your loss & share your sadness for what could have been as well as your gratitude for the family you now celebrate or still anticipate. 🔥 💓 I read this year that the cells of every pregnancy remain in our bodies for years if not decades post loss. Those little lives are still with us. Whether our pregnancy loss was spontaneous or by choice. I celebrate all women & every choice. I stand with all women. We all have to process the physiological as well as psychological & emotional journey & it hurts. And we need space to talk about it at work as well as at home & socially. We carry this load mostly silently & it's damaging our #health. 💓 🌟 In 2025 I commit to learning more about & supporting more women creating tools to help us through these journeys from fertility to menstruation on to #menopause & beyond. This is my journey as well as both of my daughters. I'm fully invested. 💸 ✨ I've been inspired by so many of you this year sharing your vulnerability & #resilience & I hear & feel a calling to act. I can't wait to join you on this adventure to help women everywhere be & become their fullest, brightest & brilliant selves. Please do reach out & let's start the conversation to create together. 🔥 Leyla F Karaha you recently asked me on your YourY Network | Social Entrepreneurs podcast 'what scares you?' well this did a little. Because it matters. So I'm making space for it. 🙏 Wishing you all a truly special Christmas & the most peaceful & gentle New Year. Here's to 2025 🎉 🎄✨ With #gratitude, Sorcha 💓 #femtech #blockchain #crypto #ai #vc #investing #womenintech TechFoundHer @global InvestHer InvestHer Summit Women in Immersive Technologies Europe BlockW Boann Ventures The SMEChain Ventures GatherVerse IIF - Impact Innovation Foundation, Inc

When Lorraine E. Curham tasked öogo with supporting the Fierce Female Founders Summit last month, the brief was simple: 😎 Make sure no Mother missed out due to childcare challenges 😎 Standard 'fixes' weren't going to cut it. Moving the hours earlier or later was never going to work for all. Having an early event might suit Mums with kids at school but would be challenging for Mums with babies still feeding etc. Sorting out additional childcare layers near homes was always possible with öogo Minders in different locations but, for Mums of especially young babies, it's much more challenging to leave them for longer periods. And this was an all day event critical for Female Founders and Investors from around Ireland. So öogo got creative and Dogpatch Labs stepped in with an open mind. 🙌 Together we found the perfect answer in setting up a Mobile Parent Support Pod right on-site where Mums who were scuppered otherwise could bring their children and: 👬 Partner up with an experienced öogo Minder 🏎️ Park the buggies (and all that goes with them) safely 🍼 Nurse babies in a comfortable space whenever needed 🤱 Have their Minder tend to their baby while they killed it on panels, in workshops and during the networking sessions 🚼 Share routines with their Minder buddy to ensure kids didn't skip a beat 📚 Offload the homework so it didn't need to be done later on 🎳 Feel confident little ones were learning new skills & being utterly occupied ☑️ Kids delighted ☑️ Babies settled ☑️ Mums empowered ☑️ Organisers celebrated ☑️ Minders chuffed (properly glowing) + No one excluded on account of being a Mother from an important event. What Lorraine E. Curham realised and what öogo is founded on is the belief that the motherhood penalty has to become a thing of the past. When mothers can participate in the workforce how they see fit without compromising their role as mothers, everyone wins. Women and most especially Female Founders cannot afford to be excluded while mothering. The world has to evolve to support working mothers while they mother. Lia Boyland, CEO of talent shake, Claire Carroll, Founder Claire Carroll Coaching, Laura White, Founder & CEO GoToGirl., Aisling Browne, Co Founder & CEO Glitch, Anna Carmody, Founder & CEO Little Red Edu, Sorcha Mulligan, Venture Partner ... thank you all for being part of the new way of doing the 'Founding Mother' thang! You all rock and your kids are, quite frankly, ridiculous and lucky to have you all as Mums! ⚡ Thanks to Lorraine E. Curham for 'getting it' 🦉 and to Conor Burke 😎 from Dogpatch Labs - we literally could not have started this trend without you. Thanks to Ciara, Tassie, Neville, Natalia and Lana - you are Super Minders (and not yet on LinkedIn - but we're gonna fix that!). 🔥 🔥 🔥 Thanks to Camilla Monteiro for coordinating everything on the day 💫 and Leandro R. for ensuring the platform underpinned the arrangements and kept us all compliant. 🦺

I built a #Unicorn 🦄 #B2C Wellbeing App on #ChatGPT...in 30 minutes! Want to see 🤩 I started off as a bootstrapped B2C app seeking a revenue model. I then asked for a strategy to become revenue generating within three months, next I asked for a plan to hit €1m revenue in 12 months & from there I asked for help to hit unicorn status within 3 years. ChatGPT even drafted the entire investor deck on #Canva for me! https://lnkd.in/efq-XUc3 Now, who wants to test this?! 😍🔥💸🦄 Who will be our unicorn in December 2027?!! I've had a lot of conversations recently & indeed this year with founders who find it difficult to raise funding for B2C business models. Investors are very if not over cautious. Maybe this will help? Handing the worry of how do I strategize the business & revenue models over to AI to compose in 30 mins let's you, the creator, get on with innovation, limitless creativity to build more than you could have imagined! 🔥💪🌟 Can't wait to use ChatGPT for stree testing models next too! I sometimes leave a little earlier to pick up my 3year old from creche & let the baby sleep in the car. I usually meditate or listen to an audiobook or podcast (I'm my own target audience!). Today I potentially built a billion euro business & paved the way to become a millionaire. And it was a lot of fun. 🌟 Also, as you'll see from the chat, like my mother always taught me, I remembered my manners. As well as loving experimenting with AI I'm now also committed to inject positivity, kindness & gratitude. Every little helps AI understand a bit more about us humans. Enjoy! 💸 The SMEChain Ventures Boann Ventures TechFoundHer Women in Immersive Technologies Europe Association for Women in Cryptocurrency InvestHer Summit YourY Ventures BlockW #ai

This image stops me cold every time I look at it. On the left, a galaxy of American companies worth $10B+ founded in the last 50 years. On the right, Europe's contribution looks like a rounding error. 'Europe is in decline.' At least that's what everyone keeps telling me. As an Indian who's lived in Europe for the last 5 years, while consulting across three continents, I find this narrative fascinating - and incomplete. Look at the numbers: Of Europe's top 50 companies, barely a handful were born after 1980. America spawns trillion-dollar tech giants while Europe regulates them. China builds vast digital ecosystems while Brussels writes privacy laws. But here's where it gets interesting. In September, I visited a legendary watchmakers' factory in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux. In an age of AI and automation, here were craftsmen spending months perfecting a single watch movement. Not because it's efficient, but because that's how it's been done since 1875. This isn't just culture. It's structural DNA. A German Mittelstand CEO once told me: 'Why would I want to 10x my business when my current size lets my employees leave at 4 PM for their family?' Try explaining that to a Silicon Valley VC. Europe's regulatory maze is legendary. Want to launch a fintech? Navigate 27 different regulatory frameworks. Building an AI startup? Wait for the AI Act to pass while American and Chinese companies race ahead. Yet the same forces that strangle innovation have created something remarkable. 30 of the world's 50 most liveable cities are European. The continent has mastered something more elusive than unicorn creation - the art of balanced living. I see this daily living in Lithuania. My American friends measure success in stock options. My Indian network celebrates 80-hour work weeks. Meanwhile, my European colleagues vanish to their summer houses every weekend, treating leisure with the same seriousness as their quarterly targets. What if Europe's 'decline' is not a bug, but a feature? What if the continent that gave us the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution now offers a different kind of innovation: the radical idea that progress isn't always vertical. Most economies optimize for growth. Europeans optimize for life. Maybe that's not decline - that's a choice. #Europe #Innovation